Re: GG: Newspaper and magazine articles

[Walter Alvey <walter.a@mindspring.com>]

First, just to clarify, Tamara Bernstein's article is not the same one that I
mentioned in my note.  (That was called "To Toronto and Bach" and was a more
sympathetic report on on the gathering.)

As for Tamara's article, I was surprised by it.  She was at the gathering and even
spoke as a member of the "GG and the Critics" panel discussion.  Why did she go if
she felt as she described in her article?  Perhaps her editor required it.

Her talk at the gathering was largely quotes from concert and record reviews that
were written during Gould's life.  Many of these reviews focused more on his
eccentricities than his music or ideas.  I assumed that her purpose in quoting these
reviews was to show how superficial and misguided some of them were.  Yet much of her
article takes the same approach.  Perhaps her quoting the reviews was to endorse
them.

My overall reaction to the article was that some of what she says may be true, but so
what?  We are just a group of people pursuing an interest and not causing harm to
anyone.  What is the purpose of her criticism and name calling?

As for some of her specific comments:

Being from the States, I am not familiar with the allocation of funds within the
CBC.  I assume that the CBC's mission is to broadcast material that is interesting
and relevant to Canadians.  Given that Gould was recently voted the Most Influential
Canadian in the Arts, it would seem that devoting some air time to him would be
appropriate.

She calls us hero worshipers and says that we make him a saint.  Yet she has no
trouble going to the opposite extreme -- finding few if any redeeming qualities in
him and even using words such as "degenerate", "creepy", and "repugnant".  As for
hero worship, I thought that one of the most interesting sessions was "GG and the
Doctors" which explored his darker side.  I don't know where she was during that.

She says with no explanation that fanaticism is OK for opera but not (apparently) for
other forms of music.

I can't imagine what prompted the comment about audience members not getting laid
within the last five years.  That's an old put-down that I used to hear in my high
school locker room.  I would expect something more original from the music critic of
a major city's newspaper.

"Claude B. Zachary" wrote:

> On Mon, 4 Oct 1999, Walter Alvey wrote:
> > I have the two articles only in hard copy.  Toronto Life magazine has a web
> > site (http://www.tor-lifeline.com/) but I don't think it contains the text of
> > the article (only the introduction which I quoted).  The National Post may have
> > a web site that has the article (I didn't check).
>
> The National Post article can be found at:
> http://www.nationalpost.com/artslife.asp?s2=arts&f=990928/89359.html
>
> Any reactions?
>
> Claude

--
Walter A.